Follow usHibe’s Social Manifesto
Today, we share with you our Social Manifesto, an internal document that presents our motivations and the principles guiding our work. It is the rallying cry for our team.
We enter an era of awareness where social media users ask for a more natural experience in their online interactions. We are simply answering the call.
The Manifesto will help you understand how Hibe follows the way we interact in the real world. For example, as in life, Hibe has NO PRIVACY SETTINGS!
We also invite you to register on Hibe's home page for a pre-launch access. Registrants will receive their invites on a first come first serve basis, in Fall.
We hope the Manifesto will inspire you as it inspires us. Enjoy!
Identity through Booklets
This is the second post of a two-part essay on Hibe’s inner workings. We previously saw how facets help us extend our social contexts online and we now cover how booklets define who we are in those facets.
Booklets ‘R’ Us
Booklets are the digital representations of our relations with everything around us. They capture our values, our interests and collections, our ideas, our souvenirs, and our activities. To help clarify this point, let’s look at Sandra in Figure 1.
With her beach friends, Sandra:
Figure 1 - Sandra and her facets
- Shows her Fendi sunglasses
- Discusses digital photography
- Talks about abortion
- Tracks all the beaches she goes on
With her band, Sandra:
- Sings in Jumping Stars, a pop band
- Uses Shure microphones
- Blogs and posts photos of her concerts
- Talks about her favorite bands
At work, she:
- Represents ACME
- Shares her relation with her Dell notebook
- Takes notes on the books she reads
- Openly critics the F.W. Taylor’s scientific approach to work
To fully express ourselves, we can create an unlimited number of booklets on anything that matters to us, be it an idea, a philosophy, an organization, an object, a person, an event, a place, and so on. Hibe divides the booklet into four components.
- The booklet reference
- The booklet description
- A chronological list of posts & comments
- A series of privacy rules
The booklet reference
Using bits of information, we associate our booklet to an element from the real world. Hibe calls that association the booklet reference.
The reference is essential for three reasons.
1. By using references, we can search for booklets we have access to. This is a great way to meet new people with the same ideas without having to form groups.
Sandra can find fans of her band, other employees of ACME or other adepts of digital photography.
2. References clarify and reinforce our image.
The reference of a booklet entitled “New York” will clarify if the author is discussing the city or the state of New York.
3. References provide additional privacy options.
Sandra can set new privacy rules such as:
- Only employees of ACME can view her work facet
- Only surfing amateurs can access her surfing-related booklets.
The booklet description
The booklet description is a set of attributes that describes our relation with the referenced element. It includes a wide variety of data such as a name, an avatar, a relation type, a rating, tags, and an unlimited amount of descriptive details.
The description transmits parts of our values and beliefs. For instance:
- Sandra’s booklet on abortion will project a different image if she is pro-choice or pro-life.
- The $400 price tag on each pair of sunglasses adds to her identity.
The booklet post
We interact with our booklets using posts. The content of each post can include text, photos, multimedia, links to other members, to other booklets and plain Web links.
We use posts for multiple reasons:
- To track activities
- To log our thoughts
- To collect events
- To keep a diary
- To participate in a conversation
- To share content
Booklets, with its posts and description, represent parts of our identity making them essential elements for managing our online presence.
The booklet privacy
We can decide to block or give access to a booklet regardless of our facets’ privacy rules. This granularity helps us refine the control we have over what we share and with whom we share it. The booklet privacy engine works in a similar fashion than its facet counterpart.
Sandra can give her parents full access to all facets, while making sure they can’t access her Saturday Night booklet.
Putting booklets and facets together
We manage our image and our discussion topics by associating them with our facets.
In Figure 2, John shares:
Figure 2 - Organizing your booklets and facets
- His passion for his iPhone and his Paris photos and his art collection with his friends;
- His cat diary, his car maintenance and his Paris photos with his family;
- His passion for his iPhone and his work on the Macbook Pro with his co-workers.
This way, his friends do not have access to his personal content while managing how he appears in his work environment.
In short, booklets enable us to appropriately build and manage our online image while sharing what matters to us in a relevant context.
